Improvement in railroad-switches



" s. a. nun".

Railroad-Switches. v No. 155,435, V Patented Sept. 29, 1874.

"MTLQ AL Q IALU f mvm'fon UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcn.

SMITH .H. FINCH, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILROAD-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,435, datedSeptember 29, 1874; application filed May 27, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, SMITH H. FINOH, of the city, county, and State ofNew York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in'Railroad-Switches, of which the following is a specification The objectof my invention is to provide means for shifting and looking a rail orrails at one operation, thus avoiding the necessity of driving a wedgefor the latter purpose after the said rail or rails have been shiftedfrom one track to another. By this means I prevent the present danger ofperforming this operation, which has resulted in killing a great numberof railroad employs.

My invention consists in the construction of a slotted bar, which has areciprocating rectilinear motion imparted thereto by means of anordinary switching-lever or other suitable means. The said bar is soarranged and combined with other devices, hereinafter mentioned, that,after the rails are shifted, a block is forced up at the side of therail, and thereby it is held securely until the lever is shifted in anopposite direction, when the said block is first withdrawn, then therail is 7 moved, and, by a continuation of the motion of the lever, theblock is forced up on the opposite side of the rail, by which it isthereby held in position, as before mentioned, when the lever was movedin the opposite direction.

In order, however, to make this fully understood, that the novelty andusefulness of my invention will be readily observed, I will proceed withthe general description, having reference to the accompanying drawing,which represents my improved apparatus as applied to an ordinarytwo-rail track.

A is the sliding bar, supported by the guides 13, to preserve itsrectilinear motion. Bar A is provided with two peculiarly-constructedslots, G and H, the former of which (slot G) connects with one end ofthe bellcrank I by means of pin J, and the latter slot, H, is employedfor operating the vertical reciprocating block K, being secured theretoby means of pin L. M is a pin located in hellcrank I, and upon which thesaid crank oscillates; and said crank is provided with another pin, N,to which is attached the rod 0, leading from rails P P. The block K issecured in a vertical position by the guides It R.

The operation is as follows: Supposing the bar A to stand as shown inthe accompanying drawing, the rail P appears at the end of its stroke inone direction, and the block K at the back of the said rail. Now, bymoving the guided bar in the direction indicated by the arrow, the pin Lin connection with block K, is made to descend by the inclined portionat that end of slot H, while at the same time the straight portion atone end of slot G is presented to pin J therefore the bell-crank has nomotion until the said pin J strikes the inclined portion of slot G, whenit begins to descend, carrying with it that end of the said bell-crank,shifting the rail to the opposite end of its stroke. This occurs,however, when the pin L has reached the lower end of its stroke and ismoving through the straight portion of slot H, at the end of which itmeets the inclined plane at this end of the slot and begins to ascend,forcing the block K up behind the rail. This is after the pin J hasreached the lower end of the inclined planeof slot G and is movingthrough the second horizontal portion of said slot. By this means thesaid rail is unlocked, shifted, and relocked at one operation of thelever, and thus it remains until there is a reverse movement of the saidlever, when the result is that of placing the apparatus in the positionwhere the operation commenced.

I wish here to state that some slight modifications in this apparatusmay be made in order to apply it in different localities but What Iclaim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of theUnited States, 1s

The combination of the slotted sliding bar A with the bell-crank I, rod0, reciprocating block K, and a suitable operating-lever, allsubstantially as shown and described.

SMITH H. FINGH.

Witnesses EDWD. G. BUCHANAN, R0131. M. FRYER.

